More horn questions ???

[kaptnkaos]

Hey Guys,

I have been following 1970F100's Horn thread because mine isn't working either.

A couple of questions...

Should the horns sound if I take a ground and a positve lead directly from the battery grounding the horn body and touching the prong where the connector goes?

How does one check to see if the horn relay itself is working?
I'm probably going to order a new one.
Maybe, I could get one at the local parts house. Do other years fit?

When checking the horn button circuit, all I need to do is push the horn carbon with a grounded test light to see if that circuit is working ???

I'll probably run into some more questions before this is done...

It looks like I might be upgrading my fuse panel to the blade style fuses in the near future...
Yesterday, my whole system was dead unil I jiggled the wires going into the fuse panel.. then the power came back on... not a good sign...

KaptnKA S

[seattle67]

Hi kaptn,

Yes, you can test the horns themselves just like you described, ground the body and pos 12vdc to the tab.

You can test the horn relay in somewhat the same way. On the relay there are 3 tabs, on one side there are 2 tabs and on the other side there is 1 by itself. The one by itself is the ground (lets call it tab 1), this is the one that gets the ground signal from the horn button. On the side of the relay that has two tabs, the one nearest the back of the relay is pos 12vdc input (call this tab 2), it should always have 12vdc + on it. The tab near the front is pos 12vdc output to your horns (tab 3). To test the relay, make sure you have 12v + at tab 2, then put a ground to tab 1. With that done, you should now see 12v + at tab 3.

To test your horn button circuit, put one side of your test light on the battery positive, and the other side put in the horn relay plug at the tab 1 spot. Have someone push the horn button, the light should go on when they do. If it doesn't, just start following the circuit towards the switch and look for the point that you have lost conductivity. It could be a broken wire, loose connection in a plug, or something funky with the horn carbon. It can be one or two of allot of things, so just go methodically down the line, don't jump around, and you will find it

Good luck kaptn!

[kaptnkaos]

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the directions, they're pretty simple so I'm pretty sure even I can follow them...
It looks like it's gonna be a while before I get a chance to find out...
It was gorgious outside, now, we're gonna pay for it with a weeks worth of rain...

Thanks again
KaptnKA S

[kaptnkaos]

Hey Dan,

I wanted to let ya know I followed yer instructions above...
Worked like a charm...
All the circuits are all good... I replaced the horn relay...
It came down to the horns... neither of them worked...
I used one from the bus and it worked at both connectors...
I just to get another pair of horns...
Gonna put a post in the parts wanted section...

Thanks again,
KaptnKA S

[SteveC]

did you try adjusting the screw on the horn to see if it was turned to far in?? i had a horn do that ...i also have a original 49 studebaker horn that didnt work i took it apart and clean the inside some and works just fine

Though im not sure you can pull these horns apart.

[kaptnkaos]

hmmm

I hadn't thought about that...
after sitting for 5-6 years, I've found several anomolies...
I'll look at takin them apart...

KaptnKA S

[SteveC]

and if you cant get them apart turn the adjustment screw and hook them up and try to honk the horn while "LIGHTLY" tapping on the horn with the back of a screw driver or small hammer..

dad and i got one to work by me holding the wires to a battery grounding it to the negative and holding a wire from the positive to the horn connecter and tapping on the horn body with his pliers

They had just sat for so long that they got full of dirt and gunk...and when it did honk scared me to death and blew dirt everywhere

[kaptnkaos]

you know Steve... I just had a thought...

When I cleaned the outsides up for paint, the curly part on the outside had mud dabber wasp stuff all over both horns...
I'd almost bet that the inside is packed full of dried mud...
that stuff was stinkin' hard to get off the outside, I can image what it would be like on the inside...
I'll try takin' one apart to see what's goin' on inside...

KaptnKA S

[BiggDogg]

I'll be watching this one! Another helpful thread kaptnkaos, thanks!

[SteveC]

yeah unless the horn it self has melted internally it should be serviceable and looking through my old pics i see than the horns do come apart...i dont have a stock low one but i am planning to use one of the mega loud horns off of a old international flat bed that dad had for hauling irigation pipes thing has on my silveradeo and was deafing inside the cab...

anywho good luck hopefully it is just dirt inside of them and a bit of cleaning will get them a working again

[fordman]

forget it.

[kaptnkaos]

KaptnKA S

[SteveC]

no luckwith the horn?? or didnt get what fordman said?? i didnt get it either

[fordman]

ijust remove a smart comment i made thats all.

[SteveC]

i read it when i first saw it just didnt get it but that is ok